Former Penn State officials to stand trial, judge rules

Wednesday

Jul 31, 2013 at 12:01 AMJul 31, 2013 at 1:01 PM

HARRISBURG, Pa. - Former Penn State University President Graham Spanier and two high university officials yesterday were ordered to stand trial on charges that they tried to cover up reports that former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky molested children.

HARRISBURG, Pa. — Former Penn State University President Graham Spanier and two high university officials yesterday were ordered to stand trial on charges that they tried to cover up reports that former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky molested children.

“It’s a tragic day for Penn State University, to say the least,” Dauphin County Judge William Wenner said at the preliminary hearing.

According to a transcript read in court yesterday, Spanier had told a grand jury in April 2011 that he never heard anything about a 1998 investigation into Jerry Sandusky’s behavior with a young boy in a campus locker-room shower.

But that ran counter to emails presented on Monday that showed Spanier was looped into discussions concerning the incident.

In his grand-jury testimony, Spanier also said he was unaware of the seriousness of a second incident involving Sandusky and a boy that assistant football coach Mike McQueary reported in 2001.

“They were horsing around in the shower, I think that was the language used,” said Spanier, according to the transcript.

McQueary testified on Monday that he made clear to Penn State athletic director Tim Curley and Vice President Gary Schultz, the other two defendants, that he witnessed Sandusky sexually assaulting the boy.

In other testimony yesterday, a Penn State public-information official said Spanier expressed no concern for Sandusky’s victims when Sandusky was arrested in 2011 for assaulting boys over the years.

Lisa Powers said that when Spanier initially drafted a public statement to address the charges against Sandusky, Curley and Schultz, it lacked any mention of the victims. It solely expressed support for Schultz and Curley.

“There was no indication of empathy, or any concern expressed,” she said.

Spanier later added two sentences stating that the allegations needed to be fully investigated, and that children should be protected.

Sandusky was convicted last year of 45 counts of sexual abuse of 10 boys. Sandusky is serving 30 to 60 years in prison.

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